Wheatless Welch

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Crunchy Citrus ChickenThe Ingredients:1 lemon1 lime1 orange3 c. gluten-free corn flakes cereal, coarsely crushed (I put them in a plastic bag and pounded them with the bottom of a jar)3 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary2 tbsp minced fresh parsley2 tsp paprika½ tsp salt¼ freshly ground black pepper4 skinless boneless chicken breastsThe Directions:Zest the lemon, lime and orange. Juice half of each citrus fruit with either a juicer or by squeezing fruit in one hand while twisting a spoon inside of fruit with the other hand. Thinly slice the remaining half of each citrus fruit. Arrange fruit slices in bottom of prepared pan. Set aside.On pie plate, combine citrus juices. In a plastic bag, combine citrus zest, cereal, rosemary, parsley, paprika, salt and pepper (or if you don't have a big enough one, just stir together in a large bowl, like we did). Dredge chicken in citrus juice, then in seasoned crumbs. Place on citrus slices and sprinkle with leftover crumb mixture. Discard any excess juice.Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until coating is golden brown and crispy, a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of a breast registers 170 degrees F (75 degrees C), and chicken is no longer pink inside.Roasted VegetablesThe Ingredients:3 medium carrots2 large parsnips1 garlic bulb, separated into cloves½ medium rutabaga¼ medium butternut squash1/3 c. balsamic vinegar2 tsp vegetable oil½ tsp salt¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper2 tbsp fresh rosemaryThe Directions:Peel carrots, parsnips, garlic, rutabaga and squash. Chop carrots, parsnips and squash into 1 inch cubes. Chop rutabaga into ¾ inch cubes.In a large bowl, combine vinegar, oil, salt and pepper. Add garlic and chopped vegetables and toss well to coat. Spread in a single layer in prepared pan and cover with foil.Roast in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Remove foil, stir vegetables and sprinkle with rosemary. Roast uncovered, for 25 to 35 minutes, or until fork-tender.

The Rotund Roast

My Take on the Bake

This was a sumptuous meal. The citrus flavor went well with the chicken, and it made the chicken so juicy. As for the vegetables, let's go on a faux tangent that will actually lead us somewhere:

I've never watched the Cooking Channel before, but I decided it was time since I was now cooking so much. My boyfriend and I fell in love with the show "The Worst Cooks in America." Two chefs compete to teach their own team of bad cooks to cook professionally. A cook is eliminated every round from each team. The last two cooks standing cook a 3-course gourmet meal for food critics who think that they are judging food made by the professional chefs. The winner of the best meal gets $25,000, and the removal of the title "worst cook in America." I love this show because I can relate to it so much. Mostly I laugh at how terrible the cooks really are, or reminisce about my old cooking ignorance. But now, in the midst of learning to become a gluten-free superhero chef, Wheatless Welch, I found myself making some mistakes worthy of this show:

Apparently you're supposed to roast garlic cloves whole. Instead I minced them because I was so used to mincing immediately after spotting garlic on the ingredients list. This actually made a very tasty addition to the sauce; so good I might even try it again! Okay so that wasn't "worst cook" worthy. But next I didn't cover the pan in foil, so the vegetables came out very hard. Okay so that wasn't beginning worst cooks material, but possibly episode 3 material. It's okay, cooking is life-long learning process, and sometimes mistakes like mincing garlic instead of leaving it whole lead to better-tasting results :)

My dad's friend, a pure Italian, taught me these family recipes. The fettucini alfredo recipe was already written down, but I dictated the eggplant parmesan recipe by my dad's friend's memory.

This is possibly my favorite meal of this whole project so far! That or the curry.

The eggplant parmesan takes so long to make that we started it, then made and ate the alfredo, then got back to making the parmesan.

You could serve either of these as lone main dishes plus a salad perhaps. The fettucini alfredo serves four, or eight if a side dish. The eggplan parmesan serves at least eight, but I don't know how many for sure.

The Directions:
Cook the gluten-free fettucini in plenty of boiling water. While it is cooking, melt butter in a skillet and brown minced garlic, then add in the cream. Simmer the sauce on med-low heat, stirring occasionally, until cream is slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Do not let the cream come to a rolling boil or else the fat will
separate and you will lose the smooth texture of this sauce. Add ½ c. of parmesan to the cream and
continue stirring until cheese starts to melt.

When cooked, drain the pasta and place in a shallow serving dish. Pour the sauce over the pasta,
sprinkling with another ½ c. parmesan and black pepper. Toss lightly until the fettuccini is well coated.
Serve immediately.

Preparing the sauce: Put a few tbsp. olive oil in a pot on medium heat. Peel 6 big garlic cloves, press garlic into pot with a garlic presser and brown slightly. Add in 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes and a 6 oz. can of tomato paste. Add 5 tbsp. total for all the spice, either adding thyme, rosemary, sage, marjoram, oregano, basil or adding 5 tbsp. from a basic Italian seasoning shaker into pot. Boil off water if using fresh tomatoes along with paste; let the sauce get nice and thick. Put top on askew to let steam out. Turn off burner and let cool (will melt cheese if hot when making the casserole).

Preparing the eggplant: Use common eggplants with or without the skins, preferably without skins because the skins are bitter and shrink so the breading falls off. Peel off skins with a sharp knife. Cut into 5/16 inch slices. If serving for a family, use 2 eggplants; if making a big batch, use 4 eggplants. Set up slices in rows on counter and sprinkle coarse kosher salt or regular salt on one side. Then flip and sprinkle on the opposite side and let sit for 15 min. This dries the eggplant. Rinse off the eggplant slices under the sink faucet with your hands. Dry again by putting them on top of a paper towel that's on top of a rag, and blot them with a paper towel held in your hands by a rag. Put slices on a platter.

Deep-frying the eggplant: Cover pan with a bunch of olive oil, and heat. Mix 1 egg and a 1/2 can or more of buttermilk to get coagulation with the gluten-free bread crumbs (you might have to make another mix later if you run out). Place a drop of egg mix into oil to test it; the oil is heated when the egg mix fries immediately. Dredge eggplant slices with egg mix, then gluten-free bread crumbs, then fry on each side until extra browned on edges and tan in the middle (about 2 min, depending on your bread crumbs). If the slices start browning a lot faster later than they did at the beginning, turn down the heat of the oil. Take from pan when done and blot with paper towel to de-grease, using towel over paper to blot if too hot. Add another clean paper towel before putting the next layer on. Deep fry all slices and layer on top of each other on one plate.

Constructing the Casserole: Spread a thin layer of the cold tomato sauce onto bottom of pan. Then add a flat layer of eggplant. Cut some slices into quarters and use them to fill in gaps near edges.
Save small slices to put into the center of each layer. Then spread another layer of tomato paste on, shake a bit of salt over the whole layer, then sprinkle/grate on parmesan (grated short and skinny) and mozzarella (grated long and thick). Put on layers of slices of eggplant, then tomato sauce, then salt, then cheese until at least three layers thick (ours was 5 layers), ending with cheese. Put in an oven preheated to 375 degrees F and bake for 35 minutes, then take off the lid and put in for another 20 minutes, or until browned with black edges. Cool off for 20 minutes to let thicken. Serve.

The Illustrious Italian

My Take on the Bake

Wow! Eye-popping goodness! 5-star gluten-free Italian is possible! Also fattening gluten-free food is possible. I never knew eggplant parmesan was served as a casserole, but apparently its the authentic way to serve it. This tastes much better than a breaded fillet of eggplant that you get in a restaurant. Glad I could capture these native Italian "secret" recipes. I was really glad I was with my dad's friend also because he was able to modify the recipe to help compensate for the different way gluten-free "bread" crumbs behave and taste, such as adding buttermilk to the egg and adding more spices and salt to stop the corn flavor from overcoming the tomato and eggplant.

Warning: this meal can take 3 hours, or even more if you do what we did and pause for a while to make the alfredo. A shorter but still delicious version is to deep-fry eggplant slices and serve with a slice of fresh tomato and a bit of mozzarella on top of each slice. Other fun and tasty ways to prepare eggplants when they are in abundance in the summer: make baba ganoush or grill eggplant slices with the skin still on, then sprinkle on salt and pepper.

All you have to do is cook the gluten-free spaghetti noodles according to the directions and heat up some tomato sauce and frozen vegetables. It's helpful to measure out how many noodles you need to use with a spaghetti serving size measurer. Remember to test the softness of the noodle before turning your burner off - it's generally been taking me a few minutes longer to cook gluten-free pasta than its directions say. Piece of cake! Peace out.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

My Grandma taught me how to make this specialty of hers. She is 100% Swedish, so she should know. She uses the recipe from the cookbook by Wickstroms's, Chicago, Clark Street.

Makes 36 meatballs, about 6 servings.

Idea: make extra mashed potatoes while making the mashed potatoes required for the meatballs, then serve the extra potatoes as a side with dinner.

This recipe is made gluten-free with a few easy substitutes, as noted below.

The Ingredients:1 lb. beef, pulsed smooth and silky (we just mixed it in the bowl with our hands)1 lb. pork, ditto1 beaten egg½ c. mashed potatoes½ c. gluten-free bread crumbs (we used a brand that made them with corn)3 tbsp grated onions½ tsp brown sugar1 tsp salt¼ tsp pepper¼ tsp nutmeg¼ tsp ground cloves¼ tsp ginger3 tbsp butter(Sauce)2 tbsp gluten-free flour (we used all-purpose gluten-free flour that you could hopefully find in the flour section of your local grocery store)1 c. broth1 c. half and half¼ tsp salt¼ tsp nutmegThe Directions:Mix beef and pork until silky and smooth. Then add in mashed potatoes, onions, brown sugar, salt, pepper, nutmeg, ground cloves, and ginger. Roll the mixture into meatballs the size of walnuts. Roll meatballs in a bowl with a beaten egg then in a bowl with bread crumbs. Sauté in a 10" skillet or an electric frying pan at 250 degrees F in butter until brown.Make roue: Stir flour, salt, and nutmeg in a pan on high heat until it steams. Slowly stir in broth and half and half. Add meatballs to the pan. Cover and cook 10 min. *Alternatively, if you don't make the sauce in a 10" pan, as we didn't: preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Put meatballs into pan and cover with sauce. Bake 10 min. Stir meatballs in thickened sauce and serve.The Homeland Hearth

My Take on the BakeThe meatballs stuck to the pan excessively, so you might want to toy with the type of bread crumb substitute to make it easier on yourself. It might've also worked better if we had used a mixer to "pulse [the meat] silky and smooth." As is it was, it took some muscle to fry the meatballs. But it was worth it! This tasted so amazing, definitely a comfort food and a delicacy all in one. After being told that the Swedish meatballs at IKEA probably had gluten in them, so I couldn't order them, I was determined to make them and enjoy this famous food from my homeland. And I did! Score for my taste buds' to-do list! They are now enjoying a new stage of happiness, and so could yours if you try this dish!

My cousins also taught me how to make home-made yogurt. They've tried out the oven method and the towel method, but finally decided on the cooler method to insulate the yogurt overnight. Learn from their wisdom.

My cousins recommend Brown Cow and Stonyfield plain yogurt over Dannon and Yoplait for the starter yogurt because Brown Cow and Stonyfield put more healthy bacteria in their yogurt.

It's easy to make this before going to bed, then wake up in the morning to put the jars in the fridge.

Serve with jam, honey, fresh fruit, and/or nuts.

Makes 5 Mason jars worth of yogurt.

Ingredients:
gallon of whole milk (grass-fed and organic if possible :) )
1/2 carton of Brown Cow or Stonyfield plain yogurt, or some of the last batch of this yogurt

The Directions:
1. Pour the milk into a large pot and set on med-high heat. Warm the milk up to 180 degrees F, monitoring with a meat thermometer. Continually scrape the bottom of the pot with a spatula so the milk doesn't burn. At the same time, set a kettle of water to boil.
2. Fill your sink with really cold water, put the pot of milk into the sink, and cool the milk to 120 degrees F.
3. Use the boiling water to sterilize 5 glass jars, their lids, and a large spoon. Then pour this water into the cooler. Make another pot of boiling water and pour it into the cooler also.
4. Put a few spoonfuls of starter yogurt in each jar.
5. After cooling down the milk, cool the water in the cooler down to 120 degrees F by adding cold water.
6. Pour the milk into the jars and stir together the milk and starter yogurt, then close the jars and place them in the cooler.
7. Let sit in the cooler with the cooler lid on for 5-8 hours, with 8 hours being ideal. Then put in fridge. Ready to eat when cooled.

The Bedazzling Breakfast

Yep, I treat my plain yogurt as a plain canvas for amazingness!

My Take on the Bake
The yogurt turned out great when we made it with our cousins! They said it takes practice to get it just the right texture, but I'm sure I'll get it right in the future because I plan on practicing this dish a lot. Yogurt is a very healthy and filling breakfast that can be decked out with whatever you feel like - perfect for adding variety to your daily morning routine or for placating a picky family. Don't forget about all of the friendly bacteria this dish is adding to help your gut out :) It's also insanely cheap to make - you can make 5 Mason jars full of plain yogurt on just one gallon of milk and half a carton of industrial yogurt. Take those 5 jars and multiply by the number of batches you make using your home-made yogurt as starter, and wham! You've got yourself a deal! My cousins called it freedom from the man because cereal is so expensive, and this helped them break "the habit."

*Note on using home-made yogurt as the starter: my cousins have only made batches from their old batches for 2-3 consecutive batches before getting lazy or forgetful and not perpetuating the (practically) free yogurt train. So I don't know if the quality of the yogurt diminishes if you perpetuate the yogurt batch train forever.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

My cousins let me look through their array of world cookbooks, and I couldn't pick one country's cuisine to stick with, so I decided to make a fusion Vietnamese-Greek meal.

The spring roll recipe is from Authentic Vietnamese Cooking by Corinne Trang. It makes 40 rolls if you use small triangular rice papers, but all we could find were larger circle ones that made 30 rolls. The fish dipping sauce comes from the same cookbook, and it makes about 2 cups, which was exactly how much we needed for all of the rolls.

The Greek casserole recipe is from Greek Cooking by Rena Salaman and Jan Cutler. It serves 4 as the main dish - we had leftovers.

"Nuoc Cham"/Fish Dipping Sauce

The Ingredients:

5 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp water

1/3 c. fish sauce

1/2 c. lime or lemon juice (about 3 limes or 2 lemons)

1 large clove garlic, crushed, peeled, and sliced or minced

1 or more bird's eye or Thai chilies, seeded, and sliced or minced (optional)

1 shallot, peeled, thinly sliced, rinsed, and drained

The Directions:

1. Whisk together, or shake in a jar, the sugar, water, fish sauce, and lime or lemon juice in a bowl until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add the garlic, chili, and shallot, and let stand for 30 min before serving.

The Directions:
1. Soak the cellophane noodles and cloud ear mushrooms in lukewarm water to cover until re-hydrated, about 15 min. Drain and squeeze the noodles and cloud ears to get rid of the excess water. Finely chop the noodles and cloud ears and put them in a mixing bowl.

2. Add the ground pork, onion, garlic, carrot, and egg and season with salt and pepper. Mix the ingredients with your hands until evenly combined.

3. Pour lukewarm water about 1" deep into a square or rectangular dish. Separate and soak 4 rice papers at a time until pliable, about 5 min. Place a clean kitchen towel on your work surface, then place each triangle, rounded side near you, on the towel. With another kitchen towel, blot each wrapper until it is no longer wet but remains sticky. Place about 1 tsp filling 1" from the rounded edge. Fold the wrapper once over the filling, then fold in the sides and continue rolling tightly to the pointed end. Repeat this process with the remaining rice papers and filling. *If using larger circular rice papers, don't soak beforehand. Instead, dip one into a bowl of water for about 5 seconds, set on a plate, then put about 1 tbsp filling 1" from an end and continue as above. Try to roll as tight as possible or air bubbles in the wrapping will form and make it hard to turn the rolls over in the pan.*

4. Heat the oil in a wok or a deep pan to 360-375 degrees F over med-high heat. Test the heat of the oil with one roll; the oil should sizzle around the roll but not so vigorously as to destroy the spring roll. Fry a few rolls at a time, turning them once immediately to prevent them from sticking together, then turning them occasionally until golden on all sides, 3-5 min. *If using larger rolls, it may take longer. Check to make sure the insides of the pork are cooked after the first batch.* Drain on paper towels and serve with mint and dipping sauce.

*Hint: As you make the spring rolls, stack them, covering each layer with plastic wrap to keep them from drying out, and refrigerate.Serve them freshly fried the next day. Freeze leftover rolls for up to a month; reheat them in a 375 degrees F oven for 15 min, turning once.

The Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Cook the potatoes in plenty of boiling water for 15 min, or until soft. Drain and cool slightly. Peel the potatoes and cut into thin slices.
2. Brush the base and sides of a shallow 6 1/4 c. / 2 1/2 pint rectangular oven-proof dish with some of the olive oil.
3. Layer the potatoes in the dish with the rosemary, cheese, and olives. Drizzle with the remaining olive oil and pour over the stock. Season with salt and plenty of ground black pepper.
4. Cook for 35 min, covering with foil to prevent the potatoes from getting too brown. Serve hot, straight from the dish.

The Diverse Duo

My Take on the Bake
This was an intense dinner to make, and luckily I had lots of help. As the hint suggests, you could prepare the spring rolls the night before and fry them the night of the meal. The Greek casserole wouldn't have been the hardest all on its own to make. This was a very tasty meal. The two different dishes actually went well together. The casserole was a bit strong. It called for black and green olives, but we decided to use Greek kalamati olives rather than the black olives you might find in the store. Man do baked kalamati olives stink up a kitchen! Let's just say they were a bit strong. Definitely not a comfort food dish, but has a strong taste of Greek - I would serve it with lamb. Or just with regular black olives if I made it alone next time.

We dipped carrot sticks, slices of yellow bell peppers, and tortilla chips in the hummus as an appetizer to appease our stomachs while we worked on the curry.

The hummus recipe came from Greek Cooking by Rena Salaman and Jan Cutler. It serves 4 to 6.

The curry recipe came from The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Yamuna Devi, a cookbook I'm told is like Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking for Indian food. The recipe actually uses cauliflower, but my cousins decided to use cabbage instead. It serves 4 to 5.

The curry goes well over basmati rice with a little plain yogurt or raita added on top of the curry to cut the spice if needed. The curry also goes well served without rice.

The Directions:
0. To make fresh chickpeas instead of canned, soak chickpeas overnight in a pot with an extra few inches of water above the chickpeas (they will expand). Then put the pot in the fridge to make later or cook for two hours, bringing to a boil then simmering.
1. Reserving a few whole ones for garnish, coarsely mash the chickpeas in a mixing bowl with a fork. If you like a smoother puree, process the chickpeas in a food processor (we used a processor) or blender until a smooth paste is formed.
2. Mix the tahini into the bowl of chickpeas, then stir in the chopped garlic cloves and lemon juice. Season to taste and garnish the top with the reserved chickpeas. Serve the hummus at room temp.
*Variation: Process 2 roasted red bell peppers with the chickpeas, then continue as above. Serve sprinkled with lightly toasted pine nuts and paprika mixed with a little extra virgin olive oil.

The Directions:
1. Heat the ghee or oil in a large nonstick casserole or saute pan over med-high heat. When it is hot but not smoking, drop in the ginger, chilies (optional), mustard and cumin seeds. Fry until the mustard seeds pop and turn gray and the cumin seeds turn brown. Mix the ground coriander, turmeric, and salt in a little bowl, then stir into pan. Stir in tomatoes with sauce (if you used whole tomatoes from a can, put them in then break into smaller pieces with a spatula), stirring for a few minutes. Then add cabbage strips, cover pan, and reduce heat to low. Cook for 15-20 min, shaking the pan occasionally to keep the vegetables from sticking, or until the cabbage leaves are just tender.
2. Uncover, raise the heat and stir-fry to evaporate all the liquid. Just before serving, sprinkle with the garam masala, fresh herb, and add a knob of butter, if desired.
*Note: If using cauliflower instead of cabbage, brown the flowerettes with the spices and then put in the tomatoes.

For the basmati rice, if using: cover rice in pot with water, boil, then turn to low and heat for about 20 min.

The Evidence

My cousin-in-law pretending to be a strict supervisor.

My Take on the Bake
I'm beginning to love Indian food (and I already was in love with hummus). I didn't use the chilies and it was still spicy enough/cool enough for me, but I added the yogurt to cut it just a little and for the texture effect. This meal was yum-diddly-scrumptious!

We used canned whole tomatoes instead of ones from the grocery store because my cousins said the ones at the grocery store are picked green, shipped, then sprayed with ethylene to change color. But canned tomatoes are picked ripe and preserved that way, so they preserve more of the tomatoey flavor. They pointed out to me that canned products have salt in them, so if you use canned tomatoes, you should readjust the amount of salt you add (as in none for this recipe). So they recommended buying fresh tomatoes at a farmer's market in the summer and using canned ones in the winter. They also recommended the use of iron pans instead of Teflon because the coating eventually rubs off and gets in your food, and then the chemical in the coating never leaves your body.

About Me

I am an Obie (aka student at Oberlin College) from Michigan majoring in Neuroscience. I was recently diagnosed with celiac disease. So to get used to my new lifestyle, my 2011 Winter Term Project is to cook a gluten-free dinner for my family every night for a month, then blog about it (as inspired by the movie "Julie and Julia"). I AM WHEATLESS WELCH, soon-to-be gluten-free chef extraordinaire!